Schrecken der Peripherie – "Vampyre" als mehrdeutiges Grenzphänomen

Not only in literature there are hunting vampyres. Especially in the history of eastern europe there are a few cases of this phenomena. But it is an phenomena of borders. Military borders, borders between faith and superstition and our common knowledge. In this paper I shall examine well-known sources of cases leading toward the an edict by Maria Theresia to force the end of this superstition. The sources show that there was an existing problem at the military borders of Austro-Hungary in the 18th century. When diseases came to a village and the legends about vampires were well-known there, than brave locals exhumed the body of a suspicious deceased. And they found a dead corpse in good shape. The skin had still a fresh colour. Hair and nails seemed grown and even blood was found between mouth and nose. These descriptions can be found in many sources of vampire exhumes in historical sources. But every exhume had a danger of infecting the whole society in a village if the deceased had a disease. Even if doctors and theologians examined the cases, there was never an intention to give a proof of vampyres. The phenomena of vampyres was part of a barbaric world – far away from vienna. Today's knowledge about decay of a human body shows that the descriptions in the sources are correct at this point. A body buried in a coffin still can be in a good shape. So the history of vampyres is a history of the culture transformation of legends and the history of science, to understand what happens after someone went down to his grave